Jan 28th - National Blueberry Pancake Day

Today is National Blueberry Pancake Day, so I wanted to share with everyone an amazing AND healthy recipe for Oatmeal Buttermilk Pancakes with Wild Blueberry Sauce.   Personally, I'm not a huge fan of pancakes, the main reason being that I don't like syrup.  It goes back to my childhood when I got sick from eating it, so it's basically a mental block, but one that I don't think I'll let go of anytime soon.  Another aspect that leaves something to be desired for me, is the consistency of pancakes.  I love waffles for the crunch factor, and I normally put peanut butter on my waffles.  It's actually quite good!  With pancakes, however, they tend to be a boring piece of fluffy flat dough.  As with any good mother, I've made my fair share of pancakes regardless. 

These pancakes changed me.  In addition to the basic ingredients, they are also made with whole wheat flour and oats.  The added bulk, especially from the oats, made for a more flavorful and dense pancake.  It also gives you a little bit more to chew on and doesn't just dissolve in the syrup like regular pancakes. Another flavorful component of these delectable flapjacks is the buttermilk.

On a side note, why does buttermilk make everything taste so good, but yet on its own, taste absolutely horrible?!  We have some leftover in the fridge and I'm continually reminding my milk-loving son that he really doesn't want to drink the buttermilk.  Meanwhile, as the pancakes are bubbling and browning, you can have the simple blueberry sauce simmering on the stove.

Frozen wild blueberries, sugar, and fresh lemon juice meld together over medium heat until the glistening berries pop.  Cinnamon is stirred in at the end to finish the sauce.  Not overly sweet, but a perfect balance. A great benefit of this recipe, according to Health Magazine, is that the vitamin C in the blueberries helps your body absorb more of the plant-based iron in the oats.  So feast up and enjoy these oatmeal pancakes with blueberry sauce on today's National Blueberry Pancake Day!

Oatmeal Pancakes with Wild Blueberry Sauce

(from Health Magazine)

For pancakes:

1 1/2 cups rolled oats

1 cup low-fat buttermilk

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 large eggs

2 large egg whites

1 1/2 cups 1% low-fat milk

For sauce:

2 cups frozen wild blueberries, thawed

1/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Soak oats in buttermilk in a small bowl for 15 minutes.  Combine flour, whole wheat flour, sugar, baking soda and powder, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl.  In a separate large bowl, whisk the 2 eggs with the 2 egg whites together and then stir in the 1% milk.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir.  Then add the oatmeal/buttermilk mixture and stir.  Heat a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat and coat with cooking spray.  Pour about 1/2 cup of batter per pancake onto hot skillet, and cook 2 minutes or until tops are covered with bubbles and edges look cooked.  Flip and cook 2 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned.  Transfer to a plate; keep warm.  Cook remaining batter in batches.  Meanwhile, combine the blueberries, sugar, and lemon juice in a medium saucepan.  Cook over medium heat until berries pop.  Stir in cinnamon.  Spoon blueberry sauce over pancakes; serve.  Makes about 12 pancakes. 

Italian Appetizer Bites

I have no idea where it this recipe came from originally, although I've heard maybe from a Woman's Day magazine or something, but it's been floating around for a long time.  It is probably one of the easiest and heartiest appetizers out there.  Even though I think most people have had this before, I'm pleasantly surprised by the amount of people who end up asking me for the recipe!  So here it is - Italian Appetizer Bites. 


First you take one 8-ounce container of crescent rolls, unroll it, and place on the bottom of a 13x9 glass dish, pressing at the perforations in order to seal the seams.  I can't believe this recipe could get any easier, but it did, at least for me in San Diego.  When I went to buy the crescent rolls at my local Vons/Safeway just last week, I saw Pillsbury had a great new product - Crescent recipe Creations Seamless Dough Sheet!  Ingenious!

On top of the crescent dough, you layer salami, provolone, and ham and then pour a mixture of beaten egg and shredded Parmesan cheese over the top.  Next you add roasted red peppers and then repeat the layers again, ending with the peppers.

Cover it up with another sheet of crescent dough and brush the top with an egg.  The baking and cooling part is the longest.  You'll need to cover it with foil (but remember to spray the foil with cooking spray so the top doesn't stick!), and cook it for at least 30 minutes to ensure it is well on its way to being set.  Then remove the foil and bake another 30 minutes.  You can even put the foil back on if the crust is browning too much.  After this delicious creation comes out of the oven, there really is no way to cut it until it cools, at least for 45 minutes.  I sometimes wait a full hour.  If you don't, you'll have a fairly gooey mess on your hands, so best to let it set up.  Cut into squares and enjoy! 

Italian Appetizer Bites


Makes about 32 squares


2  8-ounce packages of crescent dough, seamless sheets if you can find them
1/2 lb salami, sliced
1/2 lb provolone cheese, sliced
1/2 lb ham, sliced (I normally use a smoked or black forest ham, not a honey or brown sugar ham)
7 eggs
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1  12-ounce jar roasted red peppers, drained


Heat oven to 350*.  Spray a 13x9x2 glass baking dish with cooking spray.  Unroll a package of the crescent dough and place in the bottom of the baking dish.  Press seams together if there are any.  Begin layering by covering with 1/2 of the salami, then 1/2 the provolone, then 1/2 the ham.


Lightly beat 6 eggs together with the Parmesan Cheese and pour 1/2 of the mixture over the ham.  Then top with half of the red peppers.  Layer again with the remaining salami, provolone, and ham, then the rest of the egg mixture, and the remaining peppers.


Unroll the other package of crescent dough and place on top.  Lightly beat the remaining egg and brush on top.  Spray foil with cooking spray and cover dish before placing in oven.  Cook for 30-40 minutes with foil on, then remove foil and bake for another 30 minutes or until top has browned.  Cool for about 1 hour and cut into squares.

Honey-Rosemary Lamb Sandwich

For those of you who either know me or have read my early blog posts, you know I love lamb!  Any type and any style, from lamb ragu, to raw, steak tartar-style, or even in wontons.  This dish was something quick for a weekend lunch, but loaded with flavor.  I happened upon the recipe in Sunset magazine, Honey-Rosemary Lamb Sandwich.  Interestingly enough, the lamb recipes I've recently made, all contain ground lamb.

Up until a short time ago, it was very difficult to find ground lamb anywhere.  The stores have lamb chops, shoulder and round bone cuts, and my personal favorite, the lamb loin chop.  I enjoy broiling the thick loin chops so they are still rare and very juicy inside.  I've been very happy to see my local store start carrying ground lamb on a regular basis.  Which, in turn, meant new recipes to try!


In this recipe, you start off browning the lamb and then adding onion and garlic to the mixture.  After some tomato puree is poured in, the next ingredients are the flavor boosters - honey and fresh rosemary.  I went with what the recipe called for, 1/4 cup of honey, but I personally found it a tad on the sweet side.  The 2 teaspoons of finely chopped fresh rosemary added a wonderful aroma to this sloppy joe-like combination.

On the bun, you spread goat cheese, top that with fresh spinach, and then the lamb mixture.  Once it was all together, the sweetness was cut by the goat cheese and it was quite good.  All in all, it is a tasty lamb sandwich. 

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My adventure with Poutine

Not sure if you've heard, but Poutine is making it's way to the US.  I had no idea what this was until I saw the recipe in Cooking Light magazine.  I'm also not sure how this recipe can be "light" when it features french fries crisped up in duck fat, a sausage gravy, and cheese curds.  Oh, the sausage is supposed to be 50% less fat; that must be it.


Poutine is a dish that originated in Quebec, Canada in the late 1950's.  It is diner food.  It is so popular, in fact, that McDonalds, KFC, and Burger King all serve it in their restaurants in Canada!  In it's simplest form, it consists of french fries, with a brown gravy and cheese curds.  Doesn't sound very appetizing, but the recipe in Cooking Light for Poutine had me curious. 

I probably wouldn't have ventured to make this recipe if it wasn't for the fact of finding delicious cheese curds on sale at the Rogue Creamery in Central Point, Oregon.  AND, to make things even better, I saw this package of Rillettes at the creamery.  Again, with my naivety in full swing, I thought to myself...I know this is basically pate, but there seems to be this layer of fat on top.  I need that layer of fat to cook the french fries for Poutine!  So I bought it with high hopes of making an authentic Canadian fast food dish.


Once I opened the package of Rillettes, I knew I was going to be in for a battle.  The layer of fat on top was anorexic-ally thin and trying to just get the fat and not the pate was impossible.  So then I thought, what would be the harm if the potato strips were cooked in the duck fat with a little essence of pate!  I tossed the cut potato pieces in my mess of fat/pate and crisped them up in the oven.  Most of the pieces stuck to the baking sheet, but the ones that didn't (probably were the ones coated with more duck fat), crisped up BEAUTIFULLY and tasted amazing.  While those were cooking, I made the simple gravy of butter, flour, beef broth, and pork sausage (50% reduced fat, remember), to become the topping of the fries.  As soon as both components were done, I covered the fries with the gravy and sprinkled on the cheese curds and fresh parsley.  Ultimately, it turned into a comforting dish that we gobbled up quickly.  It's hard to say that I followed the recipe exactly, since I'm not sure how much the duck pate flavor played into the Poutine, but needless to say, we thoroughly enjoyed our Canadian creation!

National Hot Buttered Rum Day - January 17th

January 17th is National Hot Buttered Rum Day!  I normally wouldn't think anything of it, but as I was looking through the wonderful handwritten recipes from my great-grandmother, I came across this vintage Rum Drink pamphlet from Gourmet Magazine.  

The magazine ceased it's publication at the end of 2009, so in tribute to the now sunseted Gourmet Magazine, I decided to celebrate National Rum Day.  This pamphlet has a wide range of rum drinks from your basic daiquiri, to some old time favorites like the rum gimlet, a rum rickey, and a banana cow.  Banana cow?  I may have to try that one, and for anyone else that wants to, here's the quick and dirty:


Cut up a ripe banana into a blender; add 2 tsp sugar, 3 oz whole milk; 1 1/2 oz white rum; crushed ice.  Blend for about 10 seconds and strain into a large cocktail glass.  

But today was all about the Hot Buttered Rum.  I didn't go out and buy anything special, but on second thought, maybe I should have.  I stuck to the recipe as stated - it said you could use gold or white rum; all I had was white.  I highly recommend to anyone making this that you use gold or spiced rum.  Once we had our first taste, it was quite clear that we needed to spice it up!  We actually added more butter, some ground cinnamon and also some additional nutmeg.  Much better, but if only we had some spiced rum.  I didn't want to leave anyone hanging on National Hot Buttered Rum Day, so I located a recipe from Gourmet, 1969, of their Hot Spiced Buttered Rum.  They call for golden rum.  Good choice, Gourmet. 

Dried Cherry and Almond Cookies with Vanilla Icing

I will never claim to be a baker, but I will fully admit my desire to create baked goods.  There is something so comforting about making a fresh batch of cookies.  I was excited to find Giada's recipe for Dried Cherry and Almond Cookies with Vanilla Icing since I had everything on hand.  I've been making a real effort to clean out my fridge and pantry to not let things go to waste, and this recipe fit the bill.  I didn't have enough dried cherries to quite make the 3/4 cup that it called for, but it was close.  Luckily in baking, you can cheat on those "add ins" a bit, whereas the dry and wet ingredients, you can't!

This simple recipe starts with making a dough that is close to a sugar cookie dough, but with added almond extract and cinnamon.  Then you stir in the chopped dried cherries and the toasted slivered almonds.  Toasting the nuts here is key since it brings out such a wonderful flavor in the almond.  For the next step, you plop the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap and roll it as best as you can into a 12-inch long log.  Remember, I never claimed to be a baker, so no laughing at my pictures!

How people get cookie logs to be perfectly round, I will never know.  If anyone has any great tips (besides patience, which I'm a bit limited with), please let me know!  The cookie log can be kept in the refrigerate for up to 3 days, but has to stay in for at least 2 hours.  The cookies are then sliced and baked until golden on the edges and puffy in the middle.  Finally, after they are cooled, you drizzle them with an icing, made of powdered sugar, water, and vanilla extract.  Now that's the fun part.  Just drizzle them on the same parchment paper that they were cooked on and you can make as much of a mess as you want!  I hope you enjoy this buttery sugar cookie with crunchy toasted almonds and tart cherry morsels as much as I did.

White Wine Coq au Vin

I'm having an internal struggle with coq au vin.  Previously, I posted the Easiest, best-tasting Coq au Vin ever, made with red wine, with the thought that I would eventually try a white wine coq au vin. Due to my love of red wine, I was fairly certain that I would prefer the red wine version.  Now, I just can't decide.  I've come to the resolution that it is okay to love both!  Different from the deep mushroom flavor of the red wine coq au vin, this white wine version got it's flavor boost from a few star spices, namely Herbs de Provence and fresh tarragon.  Also, instead of the mushroom, carrot, and Canadian bacon combination, it was lightened up with celery, carrots, and onions (and a little bit of bacon).

Before going onto the recipe, I want to share with you my love of Herbs de Provence.   It is a mixture traditionally made with thyme, savory, fennel, basil, and lavender that was invented in the 1970's.  There are recipes out there to make it yourself, but I've never ventured down that path.  Even though the predominant spice in the mixture is normally thyme, it is the subtle lavender flavor that leaves me wanting more.  I love this spice medley so much that my favorite way to enjoy it is simply stirred into cottage cheese. I encourage you to try this - it is wonderful!  Speaking of wonderful, this White Wine Coq au Vin  from Sunset Magazine is just that.  It is hearty, but light at the same time.  After cooking up a few slices of bacon, the flour and Herbs de Provence dusted chicken pieces are browned in the bacon fat.  The vegetables cook again in the same pan and then all is added back, along with the white wine and chicken broth as the liquid.  Once everything has simmered together, freshly chopped parsley and tarragon are the final touch.  I took their suggestion and served it with french bread slices which I would say is a must to sop up the flavorful sauce.  If you try both versions - red and white - please let me know which you like better!